My second day with the Hugo 2 and these are my thoughts on it:
Bottom-line, significantly better than the Mojo in terms of clarity/transparency, resolution, imaging, air/soundstage, more natural voices. Clearly brighter sound than Mojo (but not too much). With the Hugo 2 you are looking at musing through a much cleaner window than when using Mojo and you can really get in-your-veins music feeling moments.
Mojos offers warmed and more intimate sound. The so called “Mojo” filters on the Hugo 2 are not a true equivalent to the Mojo, which remains warmer and obviously more intimate (narrower soundstage).
To my ears going from the Mojo to the Hugo 2 was an easy-to-note improvement, and by improvement I don’t mean a placebo 5% but a significant jump forward. Same when compared to a DAP such as the Pioneer XDP-300R (as it should be given the price difference).
Crossfeed function can be clearly audible but is headphone dependent, it helped a lot with my B&O H6, not so much with my Beyerdynamic T5P 2nd Gen. I think it’s a better implemented option than the 3D function found on the Ifi Ican Pro (which is already pretty good), in terms of simulating a sound coming from your front. It can really help placing voices in front of you.
Filters are very (very) subtle to note, you need to focus, and is mostly notable between the two extreme filters (white and red).
I’m still experimenting but I’m already happy with my purchase, I was afraid of spending all this money on something slightly better than a Mojo, but that’s not the case here. This DAC/Amp can even make not-so-expensive headphones sound as you would have not expected (e.g. B&O H6 or Sony MDR-1A).
No surprising or weird rattling sounds (as I already own a Mojo), I’m using the Hugo 2 while charging via USB and it doesn’t get warmer than Mojo does. Hugo 2 looks and feels (very) good quality.
Worth the price? Well, subjective stuff and it seems it may depend on where you are located. I’m sure it can at least compete face-to-face with similarly priced desktop DACs. Last weekend I was able to briefly audition the Sony Z1R connected to the TA-ZH1ES (I liked this combo quite a lot) and let’s just say I don’t feel I’m getting less with the Hugo 2.
Notes to Chord representatives: (1) Good job (2) Please keep prices consistent to avoid forum shopping. It makes no sense having to pay 2400 Euros in Europe when we can order it for 1800 GBP from the UK (one way or another), even the US price is less, we can even get an Yggdrasil (not portable I know) for less than the Hugo 2, which makes you think twice. I my case I bought the Hugo 2 because I got a bundle deal during a VAT free day, so the price was even lower than the UK retail one.
Hope this helps.
